Highway 18 between Mission and Okreek, South Dakota, is a stretch of no more than eighteen miles, but late at night or in a blizzard it seems endless. "It feels like being somewhere between South Dakota and 'there, '" says Simon Ortiz, "perhaps at the farthest reaches of the galaxy." Acoma Pueblo poet Ortiz spent a winter in South Dakota, teaching at Sinte Gleska College on the Rosebud Lakota Sioux Reservation. The bitter cold and driving snow of a prairie winter were a reality commanding his attention through its ...
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Highway 18 between Mission and Okreek, South Dakota, is a stretch of no more than eighteen miles, but late at night or in a blizzard it seems endless. "It feels like being somewhere between South Dakota and 'there, '" says Simon Ortiz, "perhaps at the farthest reaches of the galaxy." Acoma Pueblo poet Ortiz spent a winter in South Dakota, teaching at Sinte Gleska College on the Rosebud Lakota Sioux Reservation. The bitter cold and driving snow of a prairie winter were a reality commanding his attention through its absolute challenge to survival and the meaning of survival. Ortiz's way of dealing with the hard elements of winter was to write After and Before the Lightning , prose and verse poems that were his response to that long season between the thunderstorms of autumn and spring. "I needed a map of where I was and what I was doing in the cosmos," he writes. In these poems, which he regards as a book-length poetic work, he charts the vast spaces of prairie and time that often seem indistinguishable. As he faces the reality of winter on the South Dakota reservation, he also confronts the harsh political reality for its Native community and culture and for Indian people everywhere. "Writing this poetry reconnected me to the wonder and awe of life," Ortiz states emphatically. Readers will feel the reality of that wonder and awe--and the cold of that South Dakota winter--through the gentle ferocity of his words.
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Add this copy of After and Before the Lightning: Volume 28 to cart. $2.05, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by University of Arizona Press.
Add this copy of After and Before the Lightning: Volume 28 to cart. $2.05, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by University of Arizona Press.
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Good. Shows minimal wear such as frayed or folded edges, minor rips and tears, and/or slightly worn binding. May have stickers and/or contain inscription on title page. No observed missing pages. Different cover than the one shown.
Add this copy of After and Before Lightning to cart. $18.00, like new condition, Sold by Infinite Minds rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Greenfield, MA, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by University of Arizona Press.
Add this copy of After and Before the Lightning (Volume 28) (Sun Tracks) to cart. $37.08, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by University of Arizona Press.
Add this copy of After and Before the Lightning (Volume 28) (Sun Tracks) to cart. $68.10, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by University of Arizona Press.
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